By Nelson Manneh
Bakau on Thursday registered another positive case of Coronavirus which raised the total number of confirmed cases in The Gambia to 18.
The positive case was confirmed after a mass screening exercise of COVID-19 by the Ministry of Health in Bakau on Sunday and Monday. According to Director of Health Services Dr. Mustapha Bittaye, the patient has no travel history.
The screening exercise came about after a 27-year-old girl was confirmed positive without any travel history. The Ministry deemed it necessary to screen the area and people were asked to undergo voluntary screening at the school ground. About two hundred people were screened on those two days in which only one person was confirmed positive by the authorities.
The virus began in China sometime in 2019 and spread worldwide. The World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic and countries are struggling to curb the virus.
“Out of a total of one hundred and ninety-four (194) test results received, one hundred and ninety-two (192) tested negative, one was inconclusive and one tested positive for COVID 19,” said Dr. Bittaye.
The Director of Health Services said a new probable case is also recorded, that both the newly confirmed case and the probable case results are results of samples collected from the mass screening held in Bakau.
“While the confirmed case manifests symptoms similar to those of COVID 19, the probable case is asymptomatic whereas the probable case is Epi-linked to the 12th case. The Epi-linkage of the newly confirmed case is yet to be established,” he said.
Bittaye said five persons were recently taken into quarantine, two of them were from Central River Region (CRR) and the other three were close contacts of the 12th case.
“One person was discharged after testing negative for COVID 19 upon completion of the mandatory quarantine period and the country currently has one hundred and one (101), persons under quarantine, eight active cases and three probable cases,” he said.
Globally Dr. Bittaye said since 31st December 2019 and as of 6th May 2020, a total of three million eight hundred and eighteen thousand, five hundred and seventy-seven (3, 818, 577) cases of COVID 19 have been reported.
“Of these, two hundred and sixty-four thousand, eight hundred and seven (264, 807) deaths were registered and one million, two hundred and ninety-two thousand, two hundred and ninety-six (1, 292, 296) recovered from the diseases,” he said.
Dr. Bittaye said Senegal recorded one thousand, four hundred and thirty-three (1, 433) confirmed cases, four hundred and ninety-three (493) recoveries and twelve (12) deaths.
Currently, he said The Gambia has one hundred and one (101) people under quarantine, a total of one thousand and twenty-nine (1, 029) tests was conducted and eighteen (18) are positive. He added that three hundred and twenty-three (323) people completed quarantine, seven hundred and thirty-five (735) contacts traced and three hundred and ten (310) people completed follow-ups.
